WEISS, JIŘÍ

WEISS, JIŘÍ (1913–2004), Czechoslovak film director. Weiss made documentaries and won an international prize in 1934 at the Venice Biennale and the Czechoslovak Stage prize in 1937. During World War II, he made films for the exiled Czechoslovak government in London. He returned to Prague in 1945 and won the State film prize for the historical picture Vstanou noví bojovníci ("New Fighters Will Rise," 1951) a film on coal miners without professional actors. He also won the Critics Prize, Berlin, for 31 ve stínu ("31 Degrees in the Shade," 1965). His best film, Romeo, Julie a tma (1961) was based on an anti-Nazi novel by Jan Očenášek. In 1966 he made Razda po nazdem ("Murder Czech Style"). After the Soviet invasion in 1968 he fled the country, returning in 1989 to make Martha und Ich, his first film in 23 years. In the interval he lived in the United States, teaching at Hunter College, New York, and Santa Barbara, Calif., and writing two plays and a volume of memoirs. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: R. Bergen, Obituary, in: The Guardian (May 27, 2004).